Shovel attachments usable for helping or facilitating the use of a garden shovel, a garden fork, a snow shovel, or the likes, during digging and shoveling operations, are known.
In some instances, these known shovel attachments generally consist of a handle component having a substantially elongated configuration defining a handgrip portion at a one end thereof, and a shovel attachment means at the opposite end thereof. The shovel attachment means is fixedly or selectively attached to the elongated handle shaft of the shovel, with the handgrip portion extending substantially upwardly therefrom. The handle component thus attached to the handle shaft of a shovel or the like allows a user to typically handle the shovel with one hand grasping the distal end of the shovel handle shaft in a conventional manner, and the other hand grasping the handle grip portion of the handle component. Thus, the user does not have to bend as much as with a conventional shovel during shoveling operations.
In some other instances, these known shovel attachments generally consist of a footplate component having a substantially elongated configuration defining a footplate member at a one end thereof, and a shovel attachment means at the opposite end thereof. The shovel attachment means is fixedly or selectively attached to the elongated handle shaft of the shovel, with the footplate member descending downwardly therefrom. The footplate component thus attached to a shovel allows a user to typically handle the handle shaft in a conventional manner and, with one foot pressing on the footplate member, provides an additional forward trust on the shovel head in order to dig deeper in the material to be shoveled.
In some other instances of known shovel attachments, the attachment is represented by a combination of both a handle component and a footplate component, for enjoying the advantages brought by both components as described above. Furthermore, it is to be noted that the component attachment means of both the handle and the handle components are generally integrated into a same attachment means to the shovel and, thus, are not individually position adjustable relative to the handle shaft of the shovel.
While these prior art shovel attachments can generally fulfill the main objective of facilitating the use of a garden shovel or the likes, they also generally entail more than one drawback.
For example, the shovel attachments comprising a handle and/or a footplate component that are attached at a fixed location along the handle shaft of the shovel are generally configured and sized for, and thus, are generally more comfortable to use by, a person having standard body dimensions. Relatively taller or shorter persons using such attachments on a shovel may experience fatigue and muscle and/or articulation pain in the elbow, wrist, knee or ankle, which can greatly diminish the advantages of using such attachments with a shovel.
Furthermore, shovel attachments having their position user selectively adjustable along the handle shaft of a shovel entail other disadvantages during digging and shoveling operations. A first disadvantage is rendered more evident when digging a hole or a trench in the ground. As the hole or trench progresses in depth, the user often ends up standing on a slanted surface along an edge surface portion thereof, with the shovel head having either to dig deeper in the earth, scrape material along a substantially horizontal surface or, in some complex digging operations, having to dig earth at an angle along an upwardly oriented axis. All these situations substantially change the operational geometry of the shovel relative to the standing position of the user which, in turn, forces the latter to repeatedly re-adjust the position of the attachment relative to the handle shaft as the shoveling operation progresses. The repeated re-adjustments of the attachment more often than not require both hands and precision manipulations of the user since, the handle shaft being typically circular in cross-section, the relocation of the attachment need to be done carefully in order to maintain the perpendicular axis of the handle and/or footplate components relative to an imaginary horizontal plane represented by the periphery of the shovel head. Otherwise, the misalignment therebetween renders the combination of the shovel and shovel attachment rather uncomfortable and inefficient to use. Consequently, the relatively long procedure of each position adjustment of the attachment, often immediately followed with subsequent corrections thereto, induces undesired cumulative delays to the whole shoveling operation.
Another drawback that particularly concerns shovel attachments that are represented by an integrated combination of a handle component and a footplate component resides in that, although the attachment may be selectively positionable relative to the handle shaft, the individual position of each component in the attachment cannot be adjusted relative to one another. Thus it is not possible, as is sometimes required, to position the handle component substantially closer to the distal end of the handle shaft, relative to the footplate component or, inversely, to position the handle component between the footplate component and the shovel head, unless two separate auxiliary components are used. In either cases, the same long adjustment procedure of the components required to have the latter diametrically opposed, as well as perpendicularly oriented relative to the shovel head are encountered.
In view of the above, there is a need in the industry for an improved digging implement.
An object of the present invention is to provide such a digging implement.